Library Commission head faces threat of ouster — two years later

The city’s Ethics Commission Tuesday sent a letter to Mayor Ed Lee, asking him to consider removing the president of the Library Commission for shouting down a member of public during a meeting.

Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

Library Commission President Jewelle Gomez, center, is in hot water.

Here’s the interesting part though: It’s taken two years for the issue to be dealt with by the city’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force and the Ethics Commission. It languished at the latter for 19 months.

And what did the commission decide after all this time, including reviewing a 6-page staff report and holding a lengthy hearing last week? That it didn’t have the power to discipline Library Commission President Jewelle Gomez (or seemingly any member of the city’s 112 commissions, committees and task forces.)

A report by Ethics Commission staff concluded that Gomez violated the public testimony requirements of the city’s Sunshine Ordinance when she repeatedly told Sue Cauthen to sit down when Cauthen was trying to speak during public comment at the June 4, 2009, Library Commission meeting.

But the report also found that the Ethics Commission — the entity responsible for enforcing city campaign finance, public records and open meeting laws — had no authority to sanction Gomez under the city code, which only gives the commission the power to enforce Sunshine misconduct violations by elected officials or department heads. Commissioners like Gomez are appointed volunteers who receive stipends and other benefits.

The report also noted that Gomez could not be found to have committed “official misconduct” under the Sunshine Ordinance because that section only applies to an “elected official, department head, or other managerial city employee.”

Gomez, who didn’t show or send a representative to two hearings before the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force on the matter, told the Ethics Commission her actions toward Cauthen were “inappropriate.”

“I apologize for that behavior, which my great-grandmother would not have approved of,” Gomez said.

“I think I saw something different on the video than what Ms. Gomez stated,” Ward said. “It’s hard for me to understand how someone sitting in the (president’s) chair would treat a member of the public that way.”

The Ethics Commission voted unanimously to send a letter to the mayor recommending “that you consider taking steps to remove Ms. Gomez from her appointed office in light of her actions.”

Now that the mayor has the letter, he is reviewing it, his staff said.